Prof. Dr. Anouk Bollen-Vandenboorn (coordinator)

Foreword

In this book the authors provide a glimpse of the corporate tax systems of certain Latin American countries, establishing how these systems work in domestic and in cross-border situations. In that sense, even though these countries are mainly importers of foreign investments, attention is also paid to the treatment granted to income earned by resident corporations abroad.

The first chapter of the book focuses on the relations between Curaçao and Sint Maarten with The Netherlands, while the following chapters are dedicated to the tax systems of Aruba and Curaçao, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. To facilitate a comparative study of the tax treatment of resident and non-resident corporations in these countries, the chapters are structured in a similar manner.

The analysis of the corporate tax systems of the states starts on the study of the tax treatment of corporations at domestic level. Only after this situation is carefully presented the authors move on to analyze the corporate income tax at international level. The study is further complemented by the analysis, respectively, of eventual anti-avoidance legislation, tax treaty law, community law, influence of BEPS Action Plan on the tax system of the countries and, finally, attention is paid to jurisprudence regarding the corporate income tax system.

The study of the chapters shows that despite the differences between the countries, there are similarities in the structuring of their corporate tax systems, which means that, despite the lack of a monetary/customs union between these states, further cooperation could be beneficial for the development of a uniform approach regarding the taxation of corporate profits earned by non-resident enterprises and on how to tackle abusive situations. The chapters of this book, which were first drafted in 2016 under the edition of Dr. Esperanza Buitrago, who paved the way to make this book a reality, are updated up to July 2017.